DataXu Buys JasperLabs, Ingesting Dynamic Creative Technology

Demand-side platform DataXu has acquired – or perhaps acqui-hired – dynamic creative optimization (DCO) vendor JasperLabs for an undisclosed sum. The two companies have previously worked together on behalf of some clients, including agencies Essence and BSSP.

JapserLabs CEO Stefan Lucyshyn and the company's staff of six will join DataXu's engineering team. Other terms of the transaction weren't disclosed.

DataXu CEO Mike Baker said the asset will help DataXu better serve clients in a range of verticals as DCO overruns its traditional boundaries in the travel and ecommerce verticals.

"DCO has been steady for ecommerce players – used a lot for retargeting," Baker said. "As more traditional marketers get into data-driven precision marketing we've seen the use case picking up for more traditional brands – auto, packaged goods, telco and telecom."

The applications of dynamic creative technology for these verticals often includes a geotargeting component supporting local dealership or retail information.

For instance, a CPG company selling a shampoo product that's carried by Walmart might use DCO to plug a particular Walmart store name and promotion into ad copy served within a certain ZIP code radius of the user.

"We feel like creative is the last largely untouched domain of data-driven advertising. We can target ads to within an inch of the ideal target and do it in milliseconds," Baker said. "But what are we communicating? It's still fairly undeveloped."

Eric Yang, director at Essence, said JasperLabs has proven itself "small enough to accommodate, and smart enough to come up with, solutions that are innovative for clients."

Yang added, "Our position is utilizing data and using dynamic creative to get the right message to the right person and do it in a unique way so that our clients aren't having to pay high ad serving rates, for example."